July 2/00 5:56 am - Men's XC Story and Results

Posted by Editor on 07/2/00

Mont Ste Anne World Cup - Cadel Evans is back. After a misfortune filled spring and early summer, the Volvo-Cannondale rider from Australia completely obliterated his competition at the Mont Ste Anne, Quebec round of the Tissot-UCI World Cup cross-country earlier today. "That's a relief.", he said after his win. "People were yelling 'Cadel, you're back.' It really motivated me." Volvo-Cannondale made it 1-2 with Christoph Sauser dropping World Cup leader Christophe Dupouey (Giant) in the final climb.

Bas van Dooren (Be-One) and Sauser started the ball rolling in the first lap (of 7). When the dust settled at the end of the lap, there was a group of 4 at the front - Evans, Sauser, Van Dooren and Dupouey. Roland Green (GT), the Canadian who finished second at the Worlds in Spain a few weeks ago, was 5th, but world champion Miguel Martinez (Full Dynamix) was already struggling in 8th (he would eventually finish 23rd).

Bart Brentjens (Subaru-Specialized) bridged up to the front group during the third lap, but flatted a lap later. It was in this fourth lap that Evans attacked, completely splitting up the front group. Sauser attached himself to Dupouey in the chase, with Van Dooren alone in fourth. Filip Meihaeghe (Subaru-Specialized) had bridged up to Green, and then dropped him to move into 5th. The final finishing order was basically set, with Sauser dropping Dupouey in the final lap for second, and Meirhaeghe passing Van Dooren for fourth.

Evans went from 26 seconds up at the start of the fifth lap, to 1:45 at the start of the next lap, to 2:37 by the end of the race. "Even though Sauser was not helping me chase", said Dupouey, "I could not have caught Cadel today. He was too strong."

Behind the top 5 the race was just as interesting. As Green started to drift back ("I went out too hard, too early", he said), two other Canadians were moving up. Ryder Hesjedal (Gary Fisher-Saab), who took the silver medal as a junior at the world championships in Mont Ste Anne 2 years ago, moved into the top 10 on the fourth lap. Geoff Kabush (Kona), a notoriously slow starter went from the mid-30s up to Hesjedal by the start of the sixth lap, when the pair were in the ninth and 10th positions.

The motivation for both riders was simple: Olympic qualification. Kabush needed a top-16 to complete his qualification; Hesjedal needed top-16 both this week and next (Canmore). As they entered the last lap, it began to look like Canada might have 3 finishers in the top-10.

For Kabush it turned out to be a breakthrough ride, as he finished 8th, and joins Roland Green and Seamus McGrath (Haro-Lee Dungarees) in the the pool. 2 riders will now be selected after mountain bike nationals.

For Ryder Hesjedal it was not a happy ending. With 3 kilometres to go, while sitting comfortably in 15th, he flatted, ending up 22nd. He crossed the line looking crushed, and disappeared quickly, while being consoled by his team. "It was not to be" is all he said later, "but I'll be around for a while."

Race Notes:

- Martinez was riding a local bike, a Devinci, with the decals taped over. His own bike never arrived at the race.

- After the race Roland said "It's too bad that Canada can have only two men in Sydney. We have shown that we are becoming a force (in the men's cross-country)."